So, obviously, you have my Friday post announcing 2 big things: a Vagina Monologues -spinoff I helped organize, and my St. Pat’s 5k. Basically, what happened is that BOTH WERE AMAZING SUCCESSES. I’m so happy. I can’t even…! I’ve just been floating around this weekend.

The Wellesley Monologues? Well, a picture is worth a thousand words, and I’ll let the crowd that showed speak for itself…

The pub was PACKED – perhaps to the point of not meeting fire codes, whoops. Our cast was nothing short of incredible. They rocked it Friday night! The audience was laughing crying, and clapping throughout these amazing personal stories. It was the biggest middle finger ever to Eve Ensler – haha! The original script doesn’t even come close to the real, unfiltered stories of different people.

After this incredible success, we were all ecstatic. We raised more money than I had expected in this “experimental” year – $550 and counting – for the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center!

And then the next morning I had my first race of 2014 (“Wow, you never stop!” was a response from a cast member, which I took as a compliment 🙂 ). If you read my previous post and races I’ve run, you’ll know that my 5k PR is a 9’48″/mi, and that I really really wanted to hit 9’40″/mi, but would’ve been happy in the 9’50” range as well (my last 5k I just managed to break 10′).

Well… I ended up doing way better than I had imagined! I managed to run a 9’30″/mi 5k and came in under 30 minutes! Beyond excited. I really pushed myself during this race because I wanted to beat my PR, and all my work paid off – even with my stupid shin splints 🙂 I was just pumped to run in my beautiful Providence (proud Rhode Islander right here!).

Guess which one is me? LOL so many dudes in green…

We ran past familiar streets starting at the gorgeous State House, past the Lithuanian Society, churches and Chinese restaurants of the South Side. People came out of their homes to watch and cheer us on – it felt so incredible to be running in my familiar city!

My ponytail is doing something serious right here – is it being magnetically drawn to the State House?

And as my first mile came to a close, my Nike+ announced that I had just run a 9’22” mile! I was relieved and thrilled. I pulled through, up hills and while weaving through crowds, and broke into a huge grin when I crossed the finish line with a solid 9’30” pace.

Best of all, my adorable parents and girlfriend had made the trek out to see me race. Thanks to them, we have lots of sweaty photos of me!

Because my mom is fantastic, she cooked lasagna for a sweet family dinner after the race. It was even more delicious than usual, and that’s saying a lot.

So because I’ve obviously been dancing around to (my beautiful fashionable flawless cheekbone-having boyfriend) Pharrell’s “Happy”, here is a video made by Tunisian Star Wars fans to the song. Because, duh.